Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life

In 2004, James Blake's life was getting more perfect by the day. A rising tennis star, with each passing year his game seemed to improve. In 2002, he was named Sexiest Male Athlete by People, and along the way he continued to gain in the rankings and earn respect on the court. Each day seemed to offer a new milestone, a new achievement; he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of the ride.

But that life came to an abrupt halt in May 2004 when Blake broke his back in a freak accident on the court. A few months later, as Blake was recovering from his injury, he suffered another tremendous setback when his father–the man who had raised him and provided the inspiration for his tennis career–lost his battle with stomach cancer. Shortly after his father's death, Blake's situation was further complicated when he contracted Zoster, a rare virus that paralyzed half of his face and threatened to end his already jeopardized tennis career.

Breaking Back tells the story of the tumultous year that followed these three devastating events, detailing how Blake persevered through hardship to become one of the best tennis players in the world. Here Blake explains how the wisdom and words that his father imparted to him over the years gave him the ability to succeed in the face of these seemingly insurmountable odds. Though these trials proved the most difficult of his life, ultimately this trifecta of tragedy became the culmination of all his father's lessons, showing Blake that even in death, his father was still teaching him how to be a man.

In the spirit of Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking comes this remarkable tale of strength and determination from one of tennis's biggest stars. A story of passion, willpower, and the unbreakable bonds between a father and a son, Breaking Back is one athlete's account of finding hope in the bleakest of times.

From inside the book

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Page 14 ... feel the an- ticipation building in the air from the corridor that leads to center
court, and when we walked out into the arena, and the announcer called out his
name—“Ladies and gentlemen, Andre Agassi”—drawing it out like Ed McMahon
...

Page 17 I didn't feel like I deserved to win. But when you get that close to taking a set from
a top player, then lose, your belief in yourself often disappears with the set, and
that's what happened that day. A few weeks later, I made it to the second round of
...

Page 20 ... when I had learned it, over and over, the hard way. I had begun to develop a
reputation: a lot of fans, sports- casters, and journalists thought I had talent, but
the prevailing feeling was that I didn't want to win badly enough. People opined
that ...

Page 21 I always had a feeling, deep down, that I was ca- pable of playing great tennis,
and when I didn't, I was almost mystified by it. I'd try to do something spectacular
to turn things around, and almost inevitably ended up making things worse.

Page 22 ... 2003, I bought a house within walking distance from the town center, to make
sure that it always stayed my home. From the time I left for college in 1997, I've
always come back to Fairfield at Christmastime. It has a sort of Anytown, USA, feel ...

Well Written

User Review - sugarhill203 - Overstock.com

I found the book interesting and easy to read due to the content and good writting. Being a tennis fan I found the book to show the reasons the commentators use very positive words describing James Blake. James his mother and brother are always shown respect when referring to them.Read full review

About the author (2007)

James Blake has been a professional tennis player since 1999, when he left Harvard to join the professional tennis circuit. He grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, and currently resides in Tampa, Florida.